Saturday, May 08, 2004

Snit Time

Ok. This one's been coming on for awhile. I've got myself in a bit of a snit tonight. Under most circumstances, I find myself in fairly close alignment with Max Sawicky @ maxspeak.org. And I'm not so sure I'm that out of alignment with him right now, it's maybe just my interpretation of or the phrasing of Max's latest entry. Maybe the "support the troops" mantra just finally reached my quota of bullshit for the day, I dunno.

But.

I'm getting weary of every criticism of Bush administration (and by extension, military leadership) misdeed and misstep receiving the Fox News bitchslap of, "Stop it!! You're demoralizing our men and women in uniform!"

[rant]

Well, fuck me. No one held a gun to anyone's head and made them enlist. Serving in the military is a noble endeavor, but unless I missed the memo and there's conscription in place (which there's not), every person in Iraq wearing the American flag on their shoulder volunteered for service. Joining the military entails certain risks, like going to war and getting maimed or killed. It's in the job description.

Now, I'll agree that It isn't right for these "kids" to get placed in harms way by graybeard assholes with hidden agendas, or that they got roped into Fallujah Follies because of a flag-wrapped recruiting sales pitch full of half lies (short version: avenging 9/11). But they're there.

What I say, or Max says, or Atrios says, or Tom Brokaw says, or George Bush says means not one goddamn thing to the armed services in Iraq. The cries of "support the troops" and "we can't dissent too loud because it will demoralize the troops", is cast iron bullshit for domestic U.S. consumption only.

The best way we can support the men and women in Iraq is to get some sane leadership at the helm, and then get them back here as cleanly and quickly as possible.